Zhdanova keeps motor running

The legs were strong. The resolve was, too. That might seem surprising for a woman who had run and won a major marathon the week before.

Yet for Firaya Sultanova Zhdanova, it was another day on the course.

The 44-year-old Zhdanova, who won the Houston Marathon last week, added the women's gold medal at Sunday's Naples Daily News Half Marathon to her collection, winning in 1 hour, 15 minutes and 30.60 seconds.

Turena Johnson Lane, a 30-year-old from Muncie, Ind., finished second in 1:15:53.19, while West Palm Beach's Sonja Friend-Uhl, 34, finished third in 1:16:26.09.

Zhdanova, the women's masters record-holder at the Boston Marathon and a four-time World Championships competitor, took the lead at the seven-mile mark and pulled away from there for a relatively easy win. The fatigue that could have come from two big races in seven days never materialized. In fact, Zhdanova has experience in it.

"I was ready," she said through translator Benno Eidus. "Last year, I ran in Las Vegas and won, too. Five days later, I ran the Tampa Marathon and won that."

Zhdanova, a Russian who lives in Gainesville, said her strategy simply was to win. Others' strategy was to see how spry her legs were. Friend-Uhl, one of Florida's top distance runners who finished third in the Naples Daily News Half Marathon in 2004 and sixth last year, said she wanted to set the pace from the start and draw Zhdanova out with her.

"I could have just sat behind, see what would happen and let them dictate the pace," she said. "Knowing she ran a marathon the week before, I wasn't going to let her sit and kick. That would be too easy for her. Let's pull her out a little bit. I know she's a stronger marathon and half-marathon runner, but that was my best option."

Zhdanova and Johnson Lane distanced themselves from Friend-Uhl around the seven-mile mark, then Zhdanova put some space between her and Johnson Lane near the 8½-mile mark. The fact that Zhdanova was able to maintain the pace and pull away near the halfway point did not surprise Friend-Uhl at all.

"The Russian women train really hard and always seem to recover really quickly," she said. "I expected that, but I wanted to be as close to her as I could."

The warm race-time temperature and high humidity had its effect. For Johnson Lane, a nine-time NCAA Division III All-American at Luther College, it was a big difference from the snow drifts and freezing temperatures she's used to in Indiana this time of year.

"It's a little bit warmer and more humid than where I'm coming from," she said. "I did OK. I was hoping for a little bit faster time, but I'll take it. It was a fun race."

It was fun and fulfilling for Zhdanova. She battled through the warmth and humidity, escaped any fatigue associated with two races in a row and fought off some stiff competition. She had done it before, she said, and Sunday's race was no different.

"I've run for 30 years," she said through Eidus. "I want to run 30 more."